The Sacrificers #20 // Review
Harlos deteriorates rapidly. The people destroy their own cities. Without the moon, the tides cease. The oceans rot with the dead. The rulers have left the surface of the planet for an orbital fortress in the sky. There is protection there, but it’s only a matter of time before the angry mob finds a way to assault the last fortress of the final god in The Sacrificers #20. Writer Rick Remender continues a breathtaking epic fantasy with artist André Lima Araújo and colorist Dave McCaig. The series reaches its penultimate chapter in powerful fashion with a mix of drama and action.
It’s a vast palace resting on great masses of earth which orbit the sky. The lord is restless on his throne as he is given the news: too many dead to record. His aide is desperately attempting to give him news that he does not want to hear. The knowledge of impending doom echoes through a largely empty palace. If the lord is to know what to do, he’s going to have to go and visit the comatose bed of his wife and the two children who watch over her. There are important decisions to be made. He’s not going to have much time to consider options. The rebellion reaches the orbital palace with sky chariots. The battle cry is clear: all gods must die.
Remender works with some poetically powerful concepts which linger around the edges of the central themes. The series is drawing to a close in its penultimate chapter. There’s a powerful sense of intensity as the series reaches its climax. The dawn of the series is echoed through the imperfect reflection of a couple of children of the goddess on her death bed. There’s a grand sense of The End about everything that feels epic in the truest sense of the word.
Araújo is working with a very clear gravity in the momentum of the series. On the one hand, there is a massive battle exploding on the outside of the palace. On the other hand, there is a slow and nuanced drama playing out well within the palace. The artist manages a very clever contrast between the two of them. And the assault on the palace feels absolutely gorgeous in its rendering. It's the type of thing that would've seemed much more in place in an early 20th century science fiction fantasy like Flash Gordon or something like that. Somehow Araújo manages to make it seem something other than silly, and something quite a bit more powerful than any earthbound war could. Once again, McCaig’s colors do a very sharp job of lending texture and atmosphere to the page.
Remender and company have come quite a long way in only 20 issues. Overall pacing of the series has been kind of spectacular. There’s something incredibly impressive in the creative team’s ability to capture a length of time as long as the series is capturing. It's going to be bittersweet seeing everything coming to an end the next month.
